My Story
by LOLlovesDRAGONS
Summary: When Cardin's twin sister is killed in the Hunger Games she runs away with her little sister. But no one can stay unnoticed from the Capitol for long. Written for an english assignment.


The loud crack that echoed through the forest confirmed my suspicions; they were closing in on us. So I do what I've been doing for the past ten days, I grab Fawn and run.

I know that there is no use trying to outrun them, it might have been possible if we still had our horses, I feel a stab of pain from thinking what they'd be going through, but without them riding of into the sunset just isn't an option.

Suddenly a Peacekeeper drops out of a tree in front of us. I turn, pulling Fawn along with me, but more white-clad men and women have appeared, forming a circle around us. My first reaction is to pull Fawn close to me. One of my enemies, the ones who took my sister from me and who now want to take Fawn, approaches us, her gun held high. She's young, early twenties, maybe even younger.  
"Put your hands in the air." She yells, but her voice wavers ever so slightly. I back up a little but don't raise my arms. I stop moving when I feel the end of a gun push into my back.

That's when an idea came to me. I tap Fawn's arm two times so gently that there is barely any movement. She squeezes my hand in return, letting me know that she got my message. I was planning to use a trick we used on the animals when they got angry.

I tap Fawn's arm five more times. And then we spring into action.

Fawn leaps to one side while I go to the other. The Peacekeepers are startled for a moment before realising what was happening.

Sure enough, I felt muscular arms wrap themselves around my waist to prevent me from escaping mere seconds later. I struggle, trying one final time to escape, but my efforts are rewarded by pain on the back of my head and blackness.

But you don't know who I am, do you. I thought so.

I'm Cardin Mareli and I'm sixteen years old. I live – well lived – in the tenth district in the nation of Panem. My pale skin is covered in freckles from working out in the sun all day and I have long blonde hair, which I wear in two braids that hang over my shoulders.

You'll probably want to know how everything that's happening to me started.

I stood on the edge of the forest, all my senses on high alert. Fawn, my little sister, ran towards me.  
"I can't find them anywhere." She said, doubled over, trying to catch her breath.  
"It's past time. If we wait any longer the Peacekeepers will find us." _And then we'll be whipped or worse,_ I thought but Fawn didn't need to know that. She was only six and I didn't want to expose her to the knowledge of what could happen if we were caught. I swung both of our small packs onto my back, grabbed Fawn's hand and together we ran into the forest.

Fawn and I stopped running when we reached our horses. Because our district is responsible for all the livestock in Panem nearly everyone owns a horse. They're the most useful animals in existence. And they're dirt cheap.

My horse is a dappled mare named Kiki. I've had her since she was a foal. Father was the one who broke her in.

I attach my pack to Kiki's saddle before helping Fawn onto her grey stallion Quartz. Once she's on I swing myself onto Kiki's back. I dig my heels into her sides and she responds by going into a trot, then a canter. I know Quartz is following, wether Fawn wants him to or not.

Around noon we stopped to eat and to give the horses a rest.  
"What do you think will happen to the boys?"Fawn asked as I passed her an apple. The boys she was referring to were our brothers. There are four of them, two older than me and two younger. All four are older than Fawn.  
"Vachel and Yorick will be fine. They're too old to be reaped." This year's games were Yorick's last. Fawn looked up from her apple, eyes wide.  
"And Wetherby and Ryder?" There's fear in her eyes for our siblings. There is an uncomfortably long silence.  
"They'll be okay. Nothing will happen to them." I say but my voice lacks conviction. We all used to say that to each other. 'Nothing will happen to us'. But it was all false. This last summer my twin sister Damaris was reaped. She placed sixth. That's when I decided we should run.

After much consultation with Vachel and Yorick, I formed a plan.

Our farm lies on the outskirts of District Ten, right next to the border. Every year in the down seasons, autumn and winter, we travelled into the centre of the district to go to school. Mother and Father stay home, obviously.

We would leave for school at the beginning of the cooling season, a usual, but we wouldn't arrive at our schools.

We had planned to part ways as usual, as boys and girls were schooled separately, but to meet up with Wetherby and Ryder at the district border.

But no one arrived.

We had been hoping to find the other bodies of land in the world, once we had escaped Panem that is. In school we had been taught that before Panem there was a place called North America. But we, Damaris and I, reasoned that if there was a North America then surely there must have been a south. Damaris asked our teacher this and she responded by pulling out what she called a 'globe'. It looked sort of like a small reaping ball and at the sight of it our class pulled back. The teacher told us that the blue parts on the globe represented water and that everything else represented land.  
"What happened to the other lands?" I asked. I may have been young at the time, but I knew that Panem didn't span the entire world. "Surely they must have had people."

The teacher told me that no one knew what happened and changed the subject.

The next time we stop is late afternoon the next day. After sliding out of the saddle and shaking out my legs to reduce saddle soreness, I gently shake Fawn until she wakes. Through the night we had been sleeping in shifts, both tied to our saddles, whoever was awake leading both horses.

"What?' Fawn asked groggily, opening her eyes ever so slightly.  
"We're resting the horses." I answer as I untie her from her saddle.  
"Okay." Fawn yawns and went back to sleep. I rolled her out of her saddle and into my arms. After placing her on the ground gently, I go and brush Kiki.

By the time Fawn woke I had also brushed Quartz.  
"And she's awake." I smiled and threw Fawn her water skin. She caught it with ease.  
"Your hair's falling out" She told me before taking a big mouthful of water.  
"What?" I slapped my hands onto my braids. Sure enough, most of my hair had come out. Much to Fawn's amusement, I make a loud sigh before removing the elastics that held what was left of the two braids together. I spent the next ten minutes redoing my hair while Fawn cleaned up and had a bit to eat.

Then we were off again.

The next five days were spent like this. The riding, only stopping once a day to rest the horses and our sore bodies. We couldn't let the Peacekeepers catch us. I couldn't let them have Fawn.

We'd all heard the rumours about what happened to those who ran. What the Peacekeepers and the Capitol did to those whom they considered traitors. Before Damaris was reaped we, Vachel, Yorick, Damaris and I, used to tell stories to each other late at night about the runaways.

One of the stories always managed to stick in my head. Damaris made it up when we were ten. She was always trying to outdo the boys, always trying to scare them.

It was about a girl from Six, the district responsible for suppling power to the nation.  
Her parents had died in a power-plant accident when she was just a babe, forcing her and her older brother to live in the community home.  
At her fourth reaping her brother was chosen. When he died in the Games she decided to run, to leave her district.  
After ten days and ten nights on the run she was caught by the Capitol. They held her in a dark, dank cell, chained to a wall by her wrists and ankles and slowly, bit by bit, they dismembered her.

Damaris' story is scarily ironic. She had died in the games and I had run off. Isn't it funny how life turns out?

A piecing scream dragged me from my thoughts. _Fawn!_ I span around to defend my sister, only to see a Peacekeeper emerge from the surrounding trees. Without thinking twice, I grab my sister and run.

And now we have come the full circle. Back in the place where you started in our journey.


End file.
